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H. V. Tebbs Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Photographs
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Henry Virtue Tebbs was a close friend and admirer of Rossetti, and many letters to him and his wife Emily are recorded among Rossetti's correspondence. He bought works by Rossetti, promoted his work, and after his death wrote the preface to the 1883 exhibition of Rossetti at the Burlington Fine Arts Club. His intimacy with the artist was such that he was among a very few to be present at the disinterment of Rossetti's wife, Elizabeth Siddall, in 1869 when he wished to rescue the manuscript volume of poems which he had buried with her. Violet Hunt ( Wife of Rossetti, 1932, p. xxiv) states that Tebbs wrote an account of the event.
Consists of a collection of mounted photographs of drawings and paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his wife Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall, and a few other members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle, put together for or by Henry Virtue Tebbs. Many of the mounts have been inscribed by Rossetti himself –- most importantly, items 1-18, the photographic portfolio of his late wife's drawings, but also a good number of the "detached" photographs. One is inscribed by Rossetti to Tebbs's wife Emily, and the letter which accompanied the gift is printed by Fredeman (see item 36 below). In addition, many of the mounts are inscribed in pencil with Tebbs's name, sometimes with reference to other collectors of the time such as Charles Fairfax Murray. It is perhaps no coincidence that a number of the originals of these photographs were owned at one point by Fairfax Murray himself. A photograph of a well-bearded man also in this collection (item 76) may be of Tebbs.
Some mounts have been signed by William Michael Rossetti, but this does not mean that he owned them –- he was in effect the family authenticator as well as the family archivist, and it is likely that he signed them to indicate that they had been authorized by the family.
A number of the photographs bear the stamp of Frederick Hollyer, the art photographer. He was well known for specializing in the reproduction of drawings and paintings; and many of those which do not bear his stamp may also be by him.
Organized into the following groups of photographs:
Abbreviations used in this finding aid: Allingham 1907: William Allingham. A Diary, ed. H. Allingham &D. Radford (1907) Fredeman 2004: Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ed. W. Fredeman, vol. IV (2004) Marsh 1989: Jan Marsh. The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal (1989) Marsh 1991: Jan Marsh. Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite Artist: catalogue of an exhibition at the Ruskin Gallery, Sheffield, 1991 Surtees 1971: V. Surtees. Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Oxford, 1971)
The Tebbses had two daughters, who did not marry, and they bequeathed a number of works of art to the Tate Gallery and to the Ashmolean on their deaths in the middle of the last century. The present collection must have become detached from the main collection, perhaps at about that time. It was purchased in April 2005.
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This collection was processed by John Delaney in April 2005. The finding aid is based on earlier work done by Christopher Edwards in 2005.
No appraisal information is available.
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- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Author
- Christopher Edwards
- Finding Aid Date
- 2005
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Collection Inventory
Arrangement has no apparent organization scheme.
The following 18 sheets of card, each measuring 530 x 365mm, is one of a small group of almost identical sets compiled and captioned by DGR in the winter of 1866-67, when he gave a set to Charles Augustus Howell with an inscribed title page reading "Photographs from designs and sketches by Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti given to Charles A. Howell by his friend D. G. Rossetti 18 January 1867." This was later acquired by C. Fairfax Murray and given to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, in 1916.
Marsh 1989 writes specifically about this portfolio: "[DGR] did succeed, however, in recording a large part of Elizabeth's work as an artist. In 1866 he arranged for her surviving drawings and sketches to be photographed, printed and pasted into folio volumes as a memorial of her art. At least four of these portfolios were compiled and distributed to friends; some survive, complete or in bits, others may have disappeared over the years. The glass negatives for the photographs were preserved, apparently by chance, since little value seems to have been placed on them, but most have never been reprinted. Into the portfolios were pasted two drawings by Rossetti himself, to represent the artist in the absence of a portrait photograph" (p. 13). Marsh further notes that she knows of only two such portfolios, that in the Fitzwilliam and one in the Ashmolean (where the glass negatives are also held).
Close comparison with the Howell-Murray set (now bound as an album) at the Fitzwilliam shows the present set to almost identical, bar a few accidental variants inevitable in such compilations: it is likewise on 18 sheets of the same size card, and has the same captions and same arrangement in all by a very few particulars. The set at the Ashmolean, bequeathed by John Bryson in 1967, although not substantially different in content, is differently arranged and lacks a few of the photographs present here. There are 15 sheets of card, without the portrait drawings and without two of the photographs on sheet 4, one on sheet 8, and two on sheet 13. The card size is the same, however, and it may be that this represents a first attempt to make a record of Siddal's drawings.
The Bryson set also has no title page, but it is accompanied by a further group of mounted photographs, not so numerous and on larger card, which carry notes on the verso in the hand of WMR. Given that the glass negatives came with the set, it seems very possible that this is DGR's own set of the portfolio, inherited by WMR (the family archivist) on his death.
Besides the copy given to Howell, one was sent to William Allingham, who recorded its arrival in his Diary for 9 November 1866: "On my return find a parcel by rail from Gabriel containing a portfolio of photographs from drawings by his poor wife; they are naturally full of his influence. Also of two very beautiful pencil portraits of her by his hand, one a head, the other full-length. Short, sad and strange her life; it must have seemed to her like a troubled dream. She was sweet, gentle, and kindly, and sympathetic to art and poetry. As to art-power, it is not easy to make as much as a guess; and the portfolio hardly helps. But it is very interesting, at least to those who knew her. Her pale face, abundant red hair, and long thin limbs were strange and affecting -- never beautiful to my eyes" (Allingham 1907, p. 144). A footnote states that the portfolio was then still in the possession of Allingham's widow Helen.
Marsh 1991 comments that one may have been sent to Swinburne, too, but there is no trace of that copy, nor are the present whereabouts of the Allingham set known.
It seems clear from the context that this set, although without a title page like that in the Howell-Murray set, must have been given by DGR to Henry and Emily Virtue Tebbs, probably at the same time. The captions and the photographs here are, with a very few exceptions, exactly the same -- the only variants are those which are likely to be found in such copies -- and I assume that these two sets, at least, were made at the same time.
It is clear that only a very small number of copies were made, each personally compiled and annotated by D.G. Rossetti himself, in the winter of 1866-67. When he was seeking to reunite her watercolors in 1869, he wrote to Charles Eliot Norton sending him a photograph of Pippa Passes (see sheet nos. 2 and 19), and commenting "I have had all her scraps and scrawls in ink photographed" (WMR, Rossetti Papers 1862-1870, 1907, p. 437). (Presumably in this he was including all the pencil drawings as well.) Copies of the Portfolio are of importance because they record a number of drawings by EES which have since been lost, but they are also of significance as a memorial to Rossetti's love for his dead wife -- one of the great artistic tragedies of the 19th century.
Physical Description1 box
245 x 215 and 190 x 125mm. In the Howell-Murray album, these are both annotated: "E.E.R. sketched by D.G.R." in DGR's hand. For other copies here, see nos. 17 and 32
Physical Description1 folder
205 x 275 and 205 x 230mm. Marsh 1991: 5 and 4. For other copies here, see nos. 21 and 20
Physical Description1 folder
220 x 140, 165 x 225, and 85 x 70mm. Marsh 1991: 51, 1 and cf. 30-31. The watercolor and drawing entitled "Lady Clare" in Marsh 1991 show a very different composition, but are the same subject.
Physical Description1 folder
145 x 115, 105 x 90, 185 x 110mm. Four drawings, only the first and third captioned, but the second clearly also of Sister Helen; the fourth is adapted from the same poem by DGR. Marsh 1991: 30, 10, 11 and 9.
Physical Description1 folder
115 x 90mm, 200 x 145, and 70 x 130mm. Marsh 1991: 20, 21 and 22. The second, an ink sketch, is known only from its presence in the Photographic Portfolio.
Physical Description1 folder
110 x 80, 190 x 145, and 110 x 80mm. Three different drawings of the same subject, the second (and largest of the three) captioned. Marsh 1991: cf 38, which shows the same subject but a watercolor. Another drawing of the same subject is known from the glass negative in the Ashmolean.
Physical Description1 folder
120 x 90, 150 x 115, and 120 x 120mm. Three drawings, only the second captioned but the first and third of the same subject. Marsh 1991: 54 (first drawing only: the second and third are not listed there).
Physical Description1 folder
[120 x 160, 85 x 95, 125 x 95, 70 x 90, and 95 x 75mm]. Five drawings, the first and third captioned, the second and fourth clearly also of the same subject as the third, the last a study for St Cecilia. Marsh 1991: 40, cf. 34, p. 64 (illustrated but not shown), 34 and 29. The third is known only from the glass negative in the Ashmolean. The Howell-Murray album caption to the first reads: "Design for capital of column".
Physical Description1 folder
110 x 115, 110 x 90, 110 x 95, 145 x 140, 100 x 100, and 100 x 110mm. Six different drawings of the same subject, Mary with the baby Jesus in the manger; the largest is captioned by DGR, but presumably is intended to stand for all. Marsh 1991: 14-18 (four are reproduced there, all represented here; at least one must not be in Marsh). The Howell-Murray album has the second and third pictures in the reverse order; the caption to the fourth is "Virgin & child".
Physical Description1 folder
210 x 160 and 170 x 155mm. Two different drawings of St Cecilia at her organ, with an angel. Both different from the last drawing in no. 15. Marsh 1991: 28[?] and 29. Marsh 28 is not reproduced but is presumably this drawing.
Physical Description1 folder
115 x 150, 90 x 70, 200 x 110, 95 x 85, and 115 x 80mm. Five drawings. Marsh 1991: 48, not listed, 57, 58 and 56. Marsh comments of the last that it is different in style from other works by EES, but that its presence in the Photographic Portfolio indicates that DGR thought it her work.
Physical Description1 folder
100 x 90, 130 x 125, 125 x 95mm. Three drawings, only the second captioned. The first is Kneeling Woman, and the third The Blessed Damozel. Marsh 1991: 44, 47 and 8. In the Howell-Murray album, DGR's caption reads "Wreck of Fishing Boat".
Physical Description1 folder
190 x 100, 150 x 110, 165 x 110, 170 x 95, 125 x 85, and 110 x 90mm. Marsh 1991 reproduces the fourth as no. 39; three others are reproduced from the Ashmolean glass negatives on pp. 66-7.
Physical Description1 folder
100 x 70, 145 x 95, 90 x 70, and 110 x 75mm. Four drawings. Marsh 1991: 32 and cf. 33. Marsh 33 is a watercolor not reproduced; the third and fourth of the drawings here are reproduced from the Ashmolean glass negatives on p. 62. In the Howell-Murray album the fourth and fifth images are reversed, and the caption to the second is "The Lass of Lochroyau".
Physical Description1 folder
120 x 180, 180 x 155, 175 x 130, 135 x 115mm. Four drawings, including three different drawings of Sir Galahad kneeling; and St Cecilia (a different drawing from those in no. 10).
Physical Description1 folder
180 x 115, 120 x 85, 190 x 90, and 120 x 75mm. Four drawings. Marsh 1991: 24-26. Marsh comments that this is drawn from Judges XI but also from Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women: "This is one of the most emotionally charged of EES's compositions".
Physical Description1 folder
75 x 120, 150 x 185, 70 x 115, and 90 x 80mm. Four drawings, nos. 1, 3 and 4 (no. 3 captioned thus) clearly of Arthur being taken to the isle of Avalon, no. 2 of a young man rowing a boat. Marsh 1991: cf. 13, 42, 13 and cf. 13. The second drawing has often been identified as a drawing for a projected Arthurian series, but Marsh quotes Hilary Morgan in thinking it more likely to relate to the border ballads which interested both Siddall and Rossetti.
Physical Description1 folder
195 x 110, 180 x 110, 115 x 80, 120 x 125, 110 x 65, 95 x 100mm. Six drawings. Marsh 1991: 12, and reproductions on p. 50. Marsh comments that the identification of the subject is found in the Photographic Portfolio, but this is not so either in the Howell-Murray album nor here.
Physical Description1 folder
Arrangement has no apparent organization scheme.
Consists of copies of "Pippa Passes" and "Lovers listening to music."
Physical Description1 box
Another copy of item 2(1).
Physical Description1 folder
Another copy of item 2(2).
Physical Description1 folder
Arrangement has no apparent organization scheme.
These are all numbered in a broken sequence in pencil by an early annotator. The hand is quite shaky, and it may be that of H. V. Tebbs towards the end of his life. Since the first photograph is of DGR's first exhibited picture, this may be some attempt to place his pictures in chronological order. A number are captioned by DGR himself: it is possible that all these were sent to Emily Tebbs as part of the gift promised in Rossetti"s letter of 20 December 1868 (see item 36 below), since he writes there of sending her not just one photograph but several.
Physical Description3 boxes
Pencil no. 1. This was DGR's first exhibited picture.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 4. Signed at foot by WMR; inscription in pencil "Tebbs" on verso.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 6. Another pencil inscription (possibly in the same hand: "His Father"). Signed by WMR; pencil inscription "Tebbs" on verso. Surtees 1971: 442?
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 8
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 9
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Pencil no. 11
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Pencil no. 12. Further pencil inscriptions at foot "Boyce coll" and "see a better copy given by Edw[?] Boyce Nov 9 1897".
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 16
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 17. Below: "1st Sale [= State?]of Drawing afterwards altered in [stool?]. Boyce says 2nd"
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 18. With verses (also in his hand): "Cry, Trojans, cry, a Helen and a woe! Cry, cry, Troy burns, or else let Helen go!"
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 19. Date in pencil on verso "April [65?]".
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 20. Pencil inscription on verso "see better [??]type in [??]".
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Pencil no. 22. With verse (also in his hand): "what should such fellows as I do, crawling between Heaven & Earth?"
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 24a. Surtees 1971: 186?.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 24b. Clearly from the same series as item 34.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 25. With inscription below (also in his hand): "To | Emily Tebbs | with sincere regard | DG Rossetti 1868". This must be one of the photographs referred to by Rossetti in his letter to Emily Tebbs of 20 December 1868 (Fredeman 2004, no. 68.168): "Your husband was asking my brother how he could get a photograph from one of my drawings as a present to you. Will he and you let me deprive him of the opportunity of giving you such a trifle by myself begging our acceptance of it and a few others ?
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 28. Surtees 1971: 242B?.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 29. A different drawing from item 37.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 31a. Signed by WMR; pencil inscription "Tebbs" on verso. Surtees 1971: 83. A study for Moxon's Tennyson.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 31b. Signed by WMR; pencil inscripton "Tebbs" on verso. S urtees 1971: 84. A study for Moxon's Tennyson.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 31c. Signed by WMR; pencil inscription "Tebbs" on verso. Surtees 1971: 86. A study for Moxon's Tennyson.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 33. Signed at foot by WMR; insc in pencil "Tebbs" on verso.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 34. signed by WMR; pencil inscription "Tebbs" on verso. Surtees 1971: 125B.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 37. Signed by WMR; pencil inscription "Tebbs" on verso. Surtees 1971: 117A.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 38. Signed by WMR; pencil inscription"Tebbs" on verso. See item 60.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 39. Signed by WMR; pencil inscription "Tebbs" on verso. Surtees 1971: 220. An unfinished sketch to illustrate Rossetti's own poem.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 40. Signed at foot by WMR; insc in pencil "Tebbs" on verso.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 47. Signed on drawing with DGR's monogram, and date April 28 53.
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Pencil no. 50
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Pencil no. 53. Signed at foot by WMR; inscription "Tebbs" in pencil on verso.
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Pencil no. 54
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Pencil no. 57. Possibly "Hastings 1856" on photo. Signed by WMR; pencil inscription "Tebbs" on verso. The same drawing as no. 1 above.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 50
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Pencil no. 50
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 62. Monogram and date on original 1861
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil no. 63. Signed by WMR; pencil inscription "Tebbs" on verso.
Physical Description1 folder
Arrangement has no apparent organization scheme.
Consists of photographs of a portrait of Elizabeth Siddal, self-portraits of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the painting "Found," and other works.
Physical Description1 box
pencil inscription: no. 'cf 56 but different'[?]
Physical Description1 folder
Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington. Pencil inscription "January 1853 7/6 May 1892 Hollyer | or drawn[??]". A larger version of no. 59, below.
Physical Description1 folder
Caption at foot "From the [??] Drawing": dated on original Sept 20 1855. Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington, W. With pencil inscription above "January 1893 3/- Hollyer May / 93". A smaller reproduction of no. 58, above.
Physical Description1 folder
Inscribed below in pencil "given me by C. F. Murray. Photo by Mr S. Spawson [??] of Bury St Edmunds from the orig drawing by D.G.R. belonging to C. Fairfax Murray". Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington; pencil inscription on verso "January 1893".
Physical Description1 folder
Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington; and pencil inscription "Hollyer March 1893 7/6 May 93[??]"
Physical Description1 folder
Print in ochre; pencil inscription at foot "A. C. Swinburne | D. G. Rossetti". Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington; pencil inscription "January 1893 5/- ?"
Physical Description1 folder
With long inscription below in ink, in a different hand from any other in this collection, quoting from the Metrical Romance of Sir Ysumbras [actually a cod piece of medieval verse by Tom Taylor] and the Royal Academy Catalogue of 1857. This is the earlier version of the painting: Millais substantially altered the horse and its bridle. The original of this version re-appeared in 1998 when it was sold at Christie's (24 June 1998, lot 35). Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington; pencil inscription "January 1893 7/6 May /93".
Physical Description1 folder
Mount slightly chipped, affecting pencil inscription on verso (date 1893 and price 10/6). Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington
Physical Description1 folder
Arrangement has no apparent organization scheme.
Consists of photographs of works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, including of his sister, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and "Rosa Triplex," as well as others.
Physical Description1 box
Pencil inscription below: "H. V. Tebbs 1 St Johns Gardens Notting Hill".
Physical Description1 folder
Surtees 1971: 429
Physical Description1 folder
Caption "Maud 1855" on original.
Physical Description1 folder
With caption at foot; also pencil inscription "? not in W. R.'s List".
Physical Description1 folder
See no. 30. Pencil inscription "Cassandra" at foot.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Arrangement has no apparent organization scheme.
Consists of other works such as "Isabella or the Pot of Basil" by John Everett Millais and "Amor" and "Libido" by Simeon Solomon, as well as others.
Physical Description1 box
Pencil caption: "Isabella or Basil Pot from original Picture by J. E. Millais R.A.".
Physical Description1 folder
This is a satire on Millais" picture of Sir Ysumbras (see no. 63), including portraits of DGR, Millais and Holman Hunt, and Ruskin as the donkey on which they are riding.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil caption "No 10 ? Love dying of the breath of Lust": signed on original with "SS monogram and date "7 65". Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, Sunning Lodge, Bartholomew Villas, Kentish Town, NW.
Physical Description1 folder
Pencil note "Lippi [illegible]". Stamps of Pietro Semplicini, Firenze, on verso; and nonsensical transcription of the recto pencil note "Lizzie (?Rossetti) from John Ruskin" [!!!] and correct identification by an Italian hand also in pencil.
Physical Description1 folder
Cf. no. 69
Physical Description1 folder
Mounted on blue card; the surface of the photo rather worn. Possibly a portrait of Henry Virtue Tebbs towards the end of his life. Photographer's stamp on verso of Frederick Hollyer, 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington.
Physical Description1 folder